The Ruins Gallery  

  The Ruins 1950s Gallery - External  

The entrance drive way and overgrown grand entrance of the house.
Behind the Towers in what is now Cloud Cuckoo Land. Before the war this had been the location the Kitchen Gardens. The remains of military buildings built on the site (now also ruined) can also be seen.
Three shots of the front of the Towers, the first before the demolition of the interiors had begun, the second two after the roof has been removed. (as can be seen through the upper storey windows to the left of the Banqueting Hall).
Also note the prominent widows of the Plate Glass Drawing Room below this.
Photos from within the Star Garden and Her Ladyship's Garden showing much of the buildings structures still in tact, including the roof of the house conservatory. As well as the overgrown greenery, the damage to the buildings after years without maintenance is clear to see.
A photo of the Chapel, probably from 1952 as the roof is seemingly removed from the Pugin Rooms at the top of the Towers. Two shots taken during the demolition and sale of the interiors of the Towers.
 
Out in the Gardens the bridge between what are now Mutiny Bar and Dark Forest looking overgrown. Later in the 50s this shot was one of the main publicity shots for the park after it reopened to the public (note the rowing boats on the lake)  
  The Ruins 1950s Gallery - Internal  
Welcome to the 1800s. We start our tour of the Towers not only in the Talbot Gallery, but in the Victorian Period. Not only before the interiors were removed, but before the furniture was sold to fund successive legal battles.

So much to see here, but of particular interest are the Talbot Hound corbels supporting the ceiling and innovative skylights for illumination, as the room originally only had two windows in the tower seen at the far end of the picture.

Today this area is closed off to the public, just beyond the Octagon section of Hex. Within the area the fireplace and Talbot Hounds still survive

 A closer look at the fireplace seen in the previous picture, although now we are many years later after much of the furniture in the previous picture had been sold.

Also of interest here is the wallpaper, which as with much of the decoration of the Towers would have been designed by Pugin

 And staying in a similar time period a look into the Banqueting Hall, which was used in the 30s as a tea room.

Notice the wood panelling, unique decorative features and also the fire place, which is still in situ today (and seen in one of our other pictures)
Fast-forward to 1951, and the house after the war. Here we look into the Armoury, the first section the the Towers' grand entrance, devoid of all decoration.

Today we'd be standing in the entrance of Hex and the roof we see here is still in place, one of the few to survive the 1950s

 Moving on, here we are looking through the Picture Gallery and back towards the Armoury. Today we'd be somewhere near the operators station and entry turnstile of Hex.

Notice the Skylights and Talbot Hounds similar to the Talbot Gallery, although these hounds are part of the wooden roof and not the stone walls and so were removed when the building was stripped.

Note also the pipework, which could easily be part of the buildings primitive central heating system/

 And turning around, the Octagon and a picture that tells a very different story.

While the previous two pictures show a building abandoned, here we can see the desolation caused by over 20 years without maintenance.

Whilst the ornate woodwork and doors are still looking magnificent, the debris of the roof that scatters the floor  reveal the hidden damp problems that would soon mean the buildings interiors were stripped completely and sold.
A closer look at the central pillar of the Octagon. A sign in the background, a remnant of when the house had been open to the public before the war. It would now be almost 50 years before the next members of the public would be allowed into this area. The grand doorway linking the Octagon to the neighbouring house Conservatories. This doorway still exists today, where the curtain billows out during Hex, although the door itself is sealed. And the equally elaborate doorway from the Octagon through to the Talbot Gallery. This is the doorway you pass through to gain access the Vault of Hex, although there is a fake wall a few metres further along forcing guests out of the ruins themselves.
Looking up, we can see the cause of all the debris, where a large proportion of the stunning faux-vaulted ceiling has collapsed through. Beyond can be seen the cause of the building's damp problems, as the sky can clearly be seen through holes in the roof, presumably caused when tiles have fallen.

If this had been the case today the building would have most likely been the subject to emergency preservation, but in the 50s the usual answer was to pull it all down. In some way it is miraculous that the building survives at all rather then being demolished like nearby Drayton Manor.

 A hop, a skip and a jump across the conservatories, we find ourselves in the drawing room, which manages to look simultaneously stunning whilst again show signs of the damp which ran throughout the building. As this is effectively the ground floor, looking at the damage to the ceiling in this room you can only imagine what sort of state the Pugin Rooms above must have been in.

The first image shows the doorway through to the Small Library and Music Room beyond, as well as the opening connecting the Drawing Room to the Long Gallery. The image compares quite dramatically to the same view during the 2000s.

The second, shows the room's symmetrical effect for the doorways into the Waxwork Room and the screen door through to the Conservatories. Much of the plasterwork and woodwork on this wall still survives today, although as a shadow of it's former self.
 
A closer look at the ornate doorways connecting the Drawing Room to the Small Library Another room, another grand ceiling. This time in the Music Room and the ceiling in the bay window. (The window itself was restored in around 2006, but this image gives an idea of the grandeur that would have once surrounded it)  
   
And let's finish by jumping forward to the 90s. The roof of the Talbot Gallery is long gone exposing the architectural features to the elements.

The wallpaper has been replaced by ivy and here we can see the same fireplace in the pictures above looking very sad for itself during the construction of Hex.

During the ride's construction the fireplace was boxed in preventing it from further damage by the elements, until such time as it can once again be enjoyed by guests to the house.